Friday, November 11, 2011

William Week 3

Time for an update on William! William has been going under saddle for about 2 1/12 weeks now. I probably have around 12 or 13 rides total on him by now and we have progressed to walking, trotting, changing direction across the diagonal.

Things are going pretty well. The story behind William is that my friend started him under saddle and it just didn't go so well. She had a few bad rides and then sort of lost motivation to work with him. She has several other horses and didn't feel a connection with William, so he was put at the back of the to-do list.

Basically, he tried to buck her off and when she pulled his head up he whipped it up and smacked her in the face. Then he freaked out and she went off, he fell down and just laid there. That was one of the incidents. Another incident involved him broncing down the aisle way when he was being tacked up. She thinks he might have a cold back and let me know all this before I agreed to take him. He is very unsure and a bit nervous of everything, but he seems to internalize that fear and just stand very still with wide eyes. You can see this in the pictures.

love his light nose highlights.

Things have been going well. He does do what I like to refer as the "scootie butt", where he scoots and acts like he is about to buck, but I pull him up or kick him forward to stop it. I have been using a De Gouge on him which I think has been the key to success for this guy. The De Gouge prevents him from throwing his head up, but allows him to keep his natural head carriage. It only puts pressure on the poll when he raises his head. It became evident this would work the first time I rode him. He scooted his butt under him to buck, I grabbed the reins, he threw his head up but could not do much with the De gouge on. He stopped immediately. Survival. Score.

Most of our rides start out with a few tries of the scootie butt, but he quickly relaxes and we get into a nice groove. I have just been letting him move forward and figure his own balance out, working on keeping a nice consistent rhythm. I have two videos, one is from the first ride, and the other from last week.

Future in Horse Catalog modelling? It's no secret, I LOVE Horseware Ireland . Growing up with a high withered blanket destructor ...

About Boss Mare

This blog is about my life, a 30something yr old; working in the city, balancing her career, passion for horses, dogs, and the life they deserve. Following my dreams, and getting there takes a lot of patience and a sense of humour. This is my take on life, and the amazing and stupid things in it.